fiction
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Steven, it’s Jodie. I just wanted to see if you’re coming to the party Saturday. Jodie, hi. I’d forgotten it was this weekend. It’s come round quickly, hasn’t it? I’m quite busy Saturday. I’d really like to come, though. Would it be okay if I got there later in the evening? Yes, sure. You can…
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Debby takes the sting out of the day by sitting beneath the flowering trees, painting her fingernails, and looking at the men who pass along the street in front of the sloping lawns. Occasionally, she might be distracted by the blast of a traffic horn, or the buzz of a fly, or the insolent shouts…
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He returned to footpaths and fields he remembered from his childhood. Once upon a time, they’d played here, where adults never roamed. In those days, they’d paid no heed to the signs, or the warnings, or the fenced-off areas. As children, they’d believed themselves the owners of all of this. And perhaps they hadn’t been…
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I almost ran from the restaurant, dropping my dignity with my napkin, and banging my arm on a metal door-jamb at the front. I managed to catch a taxi quickly at the corner of Fitzroy Street. This, then, must be the lucky part of the evening, as foretold by the cookie. As the cab took…
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‘He stopped swimming, and floated. Just held himself there, in the middle of the pool. His body was very long. I watched him closely, just a long thin line of body in the middle of the pool, broken by the blue of his bathers. Then I imagined the bathers gone. It was easy, really, but…
Barry Lee Thompson 